Performing Artist and their Performances: Who Owns Them?

Performing Artists & the Performance

A conversation I had with a friend a few months ago recently came back to mind last week, and I’ve been pondering the topic off and on since. When you are a performing artist ( music, dance, theater, etc.) who really has ownership of your performance, during the performance? Is it the performer, the audience, the producer/director/choreographer?

My dancer friend had commented that her significant other expressed some unsettling feeling about her working in close (or immediate) physical proximity with male dance partners. I believe the source of the disquiet arose from the possibility of the two dancers maneuvering all around and over each other, and that the dance partner may be brushing/sliding/touching/rubbing my friend in ways that the significant other finds unsettling.

NOTE: Examples of how physical proximity plays out in dance performances can be seen in the AGORA II Gallery. Some images are included here. (Not of the above described person)

Putting myself in the significant other’s position, I could understand the unease felt. It is a rare couple that would allow some third person to randomly come and engage in similar behavior with the partner, so what about performing arts makes them different?

I thought about what I told my friend. I said: “What he needs to realize is that while it is normal for couple to get a sense of ownership of each other (that sense that you belong to me & I belong to you), his agreeing to get involved with a performing artist (her) necessitates that he understand she doesn’t fully belong to him. In particular her body, doesn’t fully belong to him; for that matter, her body doesn’t even fully belong to her. When she is performing (and also true in the training and practice that leads to the performing), part of her mind, body, and soul is given to the performance; and part of the performance is likewise partly hers."

I would liken the above to the concept of participatory theatre, where the audience has a role and part to play with the performers to make the performance complete. Even though the audience bought tickets, they must take shared ownership of the performance itself in order to achieve the best outcome. In a similar way, when a musician plays a solo at a concert hall during an orchestral piece, it is not just the musician, but the entire orchestra, conductor that share in the performance. During that solo, the music doesn’t just belong to him; and while the soloist is playing the instrument and hands playing don’t just belong to her. Rather there is a synergism between the soloist and the orchestra & conductor that separates the great performances from the mediocre.

I will return to this topic again in the future, because I think it will be interesting to discuss how this plays out when you get into different mediums like People Photography and Modeling.